Update: June 2021

You know what they say about best laid plains? Well, my June ended up looking very different from the plans I described back in the May update. Quite a bit busier, too. This month has been full of ups and downs, so let’s dive on in…

While I’d originally planned to prep “The Death of Liberty?” for publication and dive into revisions on my novel again, I discovered a call for submissions which caught my eye: erotica geared towards men and the male experience. My wheels started turning immediately, and it didn’t take long before I’d settled on a protagonist.

Those of you who’ve read “The Gale at Quiet Cove” may remember Earc Mac Toghda, the selkie man who called on Arlise Dun and her comrades to save his people from a months-long magical storm. His interactions with Arlise carried this undercurrent of mutual attraction and sexual tension which never gets completely resolved, although the promise of a resolution is in the final scene. So why not actually show the resolution this time?

In “The Gale at Quiet Cove”, Earc is confident and forward with Arlise…though some vulnerability does shine through at a few points. Writing from his perspective offered me a unique opportunity to explore that vulnerability in depth. Underneath the confidence and flirtatiousness, Earc harbors a small bundle of insecurities. He’s drawn to Arlise by everything she’s done to help his people and wants to offer his affection as a way of showing his thanks—a play on the more typical “Hero slays the monster and gets the damsel” setup—but he fears any relationship will only bring both of them heartache.

Earc also fears he’s not good enough for a woman as remarkable as Arlise because of how utterly powerless he was to protect the other selkies in “The Gale at Quiet Cove”. This aspect of him showcases the theme I really wanted to hone in on with this story. Society has some very old ideas of what it means to be a man, but those ideas are unnecessarily rigid. You don’t need to be an all-conquering hero of legend to be worthy of love.

Walking Earc through these insecurities was a fun, and sometimes challenging, experience. This story was probably the most character-driven piece I’ve ever written, and together with “Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill” it really opened my eyes to the storytelling potential of romance and sexuality.

The publisher should respond by the end of July, so hopefully I’ll have good news by the time I write my next monthly update. If “Enough” does get accepted, it’ll be my first story published under a pseudonym. Well, an initialism. I don’t have a problem with being tied to the story, but I’d like to minimize any snap judgements of me or the story from those who haven’t read it and erotica/erotic romance is pretty far outside what I normally write, so it makes sense to keep it at arm’s length.

Since I spent most of June working on “Enough”, I decided to delay publication of “The Death of Liberty?” for now. Juggling the search for a good cover artist and final edits and promoting pre-orders while simultaneously trying to write a story as challenging as “Enough” seemed like too much. That means the July 6th launch date simply isn’t realistic anymore, which is just as well considering one of my other titles is launching at the end of them month. Once I’ve found a good alternative, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

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Speaking of that book launch, Murder & Mayhem—which includes my latest Whippoorwill tale, “An Oath to the Sun”—is currently set for a July 30th release date. And it’s available for pre-order here right now!

On Monday, I finally heard back on that full #PitMad request on “Folk of Rock and Water”. It’s not everyday a four time Hugo Award-nominated editor tells you that your writing impressed her and your novella was “strongly told”, so I’m pretty happy even though she opted not to accept the story. She’s currently seeking stories suited to be audio dramas, and I have to agree with her that the action scenes in “Folk of Rock and Water” mean it’s better off as a traditional book or audiobook. Nevertheless, we’ve scheduled a Zoom meeting to discuss her publication and the possibility of me writing a new story specifically geared towards it. What an amazing opportunity!

Implementing a space battle in a rewrite of an old story led me to dust off The Honor of the Queen, which inspired me to dive back into the Honorverse with a full-on reread of the series. Is there any space battle in science fiction better than the final ship-to-ship duel of the book, where Honor leads the battered HMS Fearless on a death ride against the battlecruiser Thunder of God to defend Grayson from a planetary genocide? I’m only on Field of Dishonor right now, but I’m looking forward to finishing off the series. I was in the middle of writing my novel when Uncompromising Honor came out, so I never got around to reading the last book.

On the homefront, we lost a close family friend this week after a long battle with COVID complications. I’m still in that phase where it doesn’t quite feel real yet, which will probably last until the funeral on Friday. It’ll be the largest gathering I’ve attended since the pandemic began, but now that I’m fully vaccinated I feel obligated to be there for my best friend and his family. If you’re eligible for the vaccine but don’t plan on getting one, I beg you to reconsider. There’s enough misery and suffering in this world without leaving the door open for even more.

Hopefully this post finds you well, or at least better than I’m feeling at the moment. See you again in July…